


Let Me Go

by Lunarium



Category: City of Hunger (Video Game)
Genre: Almost Drowning, Character's Body Controlled By Separate Sentient Entity, Character's Body Is Considered Corporate Property, Character's Mind Transferred to a Robot Body, Cold, Cybernetics Cause A Loss Of Humanity, Cyborgs, Hospitalization, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Only Two Left Alive
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-03
Updated: 2019-10-03
Packaged: 2020-08-11 06:15:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,292
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20149006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lunarium/pseuds/Lunarium
Summary: Reynir saves a man who nearly drowned in the icy depths of a sea near the hospital, but something darker lies beneath.





	Let Me Go

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Ilthit](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ilthit/gifts).

_“Let me go.”_

The command came in a monotonous and cold tone, his voice echoing in Reynir’s head although the blue lips did not move. Reynir blinked, understanding. Wireless interfacing with his headset. Brilliant. 

_“It’s over. Just let me go.”_

Reynir wiped away the soot and dried blood from his brow. Blood streaked the side of his head, but he believed he had stopped the worst of it. The more dire case was the young man before him: eyes wide and unseeing, mouth slightly open, face frozen in a permanent state of surprise. Body cold, bitterly cold—and that was just the parts of him that was organic. Majority of his mechanics had halted. Yet his synapses still fired, as he had just demonstrated by interfacing with the nanotech of Reynir’s headset. 

“No,” Reynir replied in attempt to appear optimistic, bloody lip and all. “I can’t leave you. Not when there’s still a chance. It’s my duty as a medic. You’re my patient now.”

He pulled out a small device from his pocket and held it above the man’s body.

“Diagnostics, TUURI?” he asked.

A series of bleeps and melodic noises followed as T.U.U.R.I. conducted her examination scan of the patient below. A synthetic feminine voice responded promptly. “Lalli Hotakainen. Twenty years old. Male identity. Blood type AB. Registered Cyborg. Reported hypothermia, broken ribs, fractured skull. Total cybernetic paralysis has affected organic motorization. No medical conditions prior to accident detected.”

“Ah, Lalli! Nice to meet you!” Reynir smiled. “Do forgive me for sounding juvenile. We’ve both just gone through quite the ordeal—ah!” He gripped his right side but ignored the pang of pain; Lalli’s condition was far worse—“I’m just glad to have a name to put to the face.” 

Lalli’s growl echoed in Reynir’s head. His eyes, to Reynir’s relief, finally blinked. Once. 

“I’m worried about that hypothermia, Lalli,” Reynir mused aloud. “I’m hoping the paralysis will lessen once we’ve warmed you up, yes? Were you designed to take in water? I mean, how did you bathe otherwise?”

_“You’re making wild assumptions about a man who had nothing growing up.”_

Reynir coughed uncomfortably. Ah, yes. Lalli must have belonged to the lesser fortunate class. 

“You took quite a fall when the bomb went off. I saw the blast send you flying out of the twelfth floor. You plummeted to the sea. I acted fast to save you, of course. I was the only one who saw you fall and didn’t think anyone else did. Lucky I ran out before…well.” Reynir blindly waved around them, where even as he spoke half the building was still crumbling. 

“You’re...the only one left. _We’re_ the only ones left.” Reynir laughed unevenly. “Lucky this hospital was only recently getting built. Pity. It was going to be so grand and beautiful! It was nuts coming back here, but I need the equipment to get you back into good health, understand? I’ll make sure you’re all patched up, and then I’ll send you off to a better hospital—I mean, one that’s currently in service…”

Lalli just stared. Had he…? No, the heart rate monitor still picked up activity. Slow, faint, but still present. Still alive. 

Reynir smiled down at his patient. “You’re quite amazing. Surviving that ordeal at all is nothing short of a miracle.”

“_You don’t understand, stupid_,” Lalli’s words came as a hiss in Reynir’s mind. “_The Empress is sending her guards to take me as we speak. I am her property, and she’ll find all that happened here. Let me go._”

Reynir frowned again. 

“Lalli…why would the government want you? You yourself said you were from the lesser class.”

_“Think, genius.”_

Far off, Reynir could hear something. Not the remains of doors oscillating, about to fall off their hinges, nor the crackling of the dissipating walls. 

Footsteps. 

They were coming. 

“I don’t get it…” 

_“There’s a question you’re not asking yourself.”_

Reynir studied his peculiar patient. 

“‘No medical condition prior to accident detected,’ Reynir repeated slowly. “That’s what TUURI said. You were a perfectly healthy patient otherwise, and this isn’t the place cyborgs go to to have any of their parts fixed. What _were_ you doing in a hospital, then? Were you visiting someone? It wasn’t as densely packed as it would become…and this neighborhood, forgive me, doesn’t seem to be the sort for anyone you might know of your class.” 

_“Now you’re getting closer…”_

“Lalli!” Reynir gasped. “Did you—?” 

Although Lalli could not move, the ensuing silence carried a weight of anticipated dread. Then finally, as if it took every last ounce of effort, the body shifted and Lalli’s gaze landed on Reynir. Outside the sound of footsteps drew ever closer, the dreadful sound echoing down the empty hall. 

“Lalli, you didn’t—you weren’t the one who—”

Lalli’s expression, impassive though it was, was answer enough. _“Not me. My cousin. But not by his own accord. He was strapped to the teeth with bombs.”_

Squeezing his eyes shut, Reynir stepped back. All those people in the hospital—his colleagues, the innocent patients, the unsuspecting staff, the visitors—why?! “Oh, ice ancients have mercy! _Why?!_ Why did he blow this place up?!” 

_“Why would I know?”_ Lalli said coldly. _“Think we’re told anything by the government? We’re nothing but disposable dolls, walking ticking bombs for the government to use at their pleasure. Maybe a politician will use this to gather more votes. Maybe they thought the hospital looked ugly._” 

Reynir shook his head, his eyes wide, staring at the cracked tiles. Maybe he hadn’t witnessed Lalli getting thrown off the building by the blast, but had witnessed Lalli trying to escape…

_“Stick around and you’ll learn what political purpose this whole scheme was for.”_

“No!” Reynir shook his head again and looked up. “No, I can’t let this happen!” 

“_Have you heard nothing of what I’ve been saying?_” Lalli said. “_Our bodies don’t belong to us. Leave me. It’s useless._”

The footsteps drew right by the door, a brush of skin again a metal handle. 

_“No!”_

▴▾▴▾▴

“Hate me all you want, but this was for your own good,” Reynir said. Panting, he pressed his back against the wall to catch his breath.

“I’m sorry about your body. We can still get it back, um, somehow.” He smiled sheepishly, unsure where to target his smiles now. 

“_I’m as good as dead, so let them collect my body_,” Lalli’s voice filled his mind. “_I didn’t want to face the facts. The sea was too much for me. I fell head-first. I had broken too many bones—broke my stupid_ skull _upon impact. Maybe it’s all for the best._”

“Oh, Lalli, no…”

Reynir pulled out the device from his pocket and peered into it, smiling fondly inside. “TUURI will keep tabs on you now. I admit I’ve never done a full consciousness upload into a robot before. I hope you’re comfortable in there?” 

“_This realm isn’t nearly as what your puny full-organic human brain can ever comprehend_,” Lalli said. Reynir laughed. Lalli’s voice was somehow even more robotic, yet he never sounded better. Too bad he couldn’t do much for his body, but he supposed this would have to do for now. Or he could take him to the body shop and be re-installed into a full bionic suit. He knew a woman who was an expert mechanic. She was the one who made the very small device Reynir now carried Lalli in his hand. 

A few moments later, Lalli added, “_It’s quite spacious here, and TUURI is a rather agreeable cybermate._” 

“And I am glad to hear that, Lalli.” Reynir smiled. He pocketed the device and made off, putting as much distance between the hospital and himself.


End file.
